It had been five years since the last time we visited the British Virgin Islands, and they are as amazing as we remember. This time we chartered a smaller boat, a 35 foot Beneteau, since it was just the two of us. This page features the first four days of our trip including visits to Cooper Island, the Bitter End Yacht Club, and Marina Caye.

Saturday December 21st
The car picked us up at 5am and we were at the airport within about a half hour. It would have been faster but we were behind some bizarro police chase - like 30 Chicago police cars all whizzing by with their lights and sirens on. Luckily, they took the fork to the Edens Expressway so we had peace for the last half of the ride. O'Hare was absolutely jammed - luckily American has a separate line for Gold level frequent flyers so we whizzed through. We were fortunate enough to get upgraded too! Security seemed extra tight, but we weren't searched going through security (I took off my arm brace to avoid the super-search I received when going to Mexico.

We landed in San Juan at 1:20 and had about an hour to get to our connecting gate. Flying American the entire way was about 5% more expensive than if we flew Spirit from Chicago or Cape Air from San Juan, but it would have been a nightmare to change terminals in San Juan. The American Eagle plane to Tortola was larger than expected (12 rows, 4 seats per row) but it still had propellers. It was only a 30 minute flight so it wasn't a big deal.

We landed in Tortola at a little after 3, breezed through immigration (the officer actually commented, "Sheesh, you two have been all over the world!"), and were met outside by the cab arranged by Conch Charters. The ride to Road Town is a nail-biter - the roads are practically on the edge of cliffs and they drive kinda crazy. In about a half hour, we were at the Conch Charters base in the Fort Burt Marina. Jamie greeted us and showed us to our boat, the Aaranda, a Beneteau 342. She would suite us just fine - two cabins, one bathroom, enough head room below deck for Andy to stand upright, and both a cassette and a CD changer. We provisioned online from Ample Hamper, and they had already tried to deliver our food before we arrived, We stowed our gear and headed to The Pub (next door) for a snack (the American Airlines business class breakfast wore off sometime over Cuba). The Pub has pretty good food, and they have internet access now. Ample Hamper came by again and delivered our provisions to the boat - mind you, we only provisioned snacks and beverages because we planned to eat ashore every night.

Nourished from our snack, we walked down the road to Rite Way #3, a very small supermarket where we bought some rum (Cruzan Clipper for $4) and calamine lotion (how could I forget??). We walked into town for dinner and took a walk around town to see what was new. We went to the Cyber Cafe ($5/15 minutes on Macs) to post to the Travel Journal, and then checked out Bobby's (grocery store). Lots of people stock there boats from Bobby's, but we prefer the convenience of Ample Hamper (especially since you never know what the stores will have when you get there). We ate dinner at Pusser's (which has gone way down hill since five years ago) and then went back to the boat and crashed. We rigged the wind scoop to get some air in the forward cabin, but we had to sleep kind of crooked for Andy to fit. A short rain squall passed in the middle of the night, so we had to scramble to latch all the hatches.

Sunday, December 22nd
We woke up just before 8am (which for us is like over sleeping). Miles gave us the boat briefing (important facts were "when the dingy engine floods, no choke, full throttle" and "rain squalls spring up very fast - if you get caught in one, lower your sails and point the nose away from the wind") and then Adam gave us the chart briefing (some changes in the area since we last visited were a change in ownership of the Leverick Bay complex and a new restaurant on Scrub Island). We left the harbor around 11:30 am, headed for Cooper Island. The winds we seriously not cooperating, and after tacking about 4 times and being "close enough" to Cooper Island, we lowered the sails and motored the rest of the way. We grabbed a mooring to the north side of Manchioneel Bay (YAY, grabbed it on the first try with a broken arm!) around 2pm. Cooper Island is notorious for filling up early in the afternoon, and since we absolutely hate anchoring, we were happy to be there early and watch the other boats fight over the last mooring later in the day. We dinghied ashore, made dinner reservations, and sat on the beach all afternoon (well, either on the beach or in the water). Between the gorgeous palm-lined beach of Cooper Island, and our little set up (we brought the MP3 player and some small speakers, and cocktails and snacks from the boat) we were pretty much a million miles from Chicago :)

We went ashore for dinner around 6:30 - the food at Cooper Island isn't gourmet, but I had garlic shrimp over rice and it was pretty good. They do make great bushwackers though :) During dinner, we saw this strange blinking dingy making its way ashore - it seemed to have red and green flashing lights on it. A few minutes later, we realized it was the dinghy's occupants that were blinking - they were wearing red and green blinking earrings. Very...festive. During the boat briefing, we learned that the galley table lowered to form a rather large bed, so we opted for that over the forward cabin (the read cabin has the biggest bed, but it has a low ceiling making it feel somewhat coffin-like and it smells of diesel since it is beside the engine). There's much better ventilation in the galley (no need for wind scoop). We were asleep by 9pm and awoke to the nightly rain squall.

Monday, December 23rd
We woke up around 7am and had coffee and peanut butter and jelly sandwiches before heading out. In Chicago, we found these great Folgers single coffee bags (like tea bags but with coffee) and they worked out great for the trip. We don't usually eat PB&J for breakfast, but we had planned to go to a bakery in Road Town when we arrived but that plan didn't pan out.

We were literally the first boat in the Sir Francis Drake channel - and more importantly, we were headed in the right direction traveling between 4-5 knots! The debate for the rest of the week would be whether it is better to go faster in the wrong direction than to go slower in the right direction. Several boats had motored to the Baths pretty early, because there were 4-5 boats tied up there when we passed. We decided to skip the Baths on this trip, since we were there last year and there was a substantial northern swell meaning it would be rough. We sailed all the way up the coast of Virgin Gorda to North Sound and easily grabbed a mooring at the Bitter End (YAY - two for two!). The trip took about 4 hours. We were both kinda sweltering from being in the sun all day, so we jumped right in the water too cool off. The Bitter End was much emptier than the last time we were here (that was March) but otherwise had not changed. Saba Rock, however, had changed substantially. It was closed last time we were here and didn't look like we were missing anything. Now it is a restaurant with a steel drum band at night, a few hotel rooms, and they give you a free water fill and bag of ice if you use one of their moorings. We dinghied ashore, made dinner reservations at the Bitter End, and used the internet to post to the Travel Journal ($10/20 minutes). We spent the afternoon on the boat (it was deserted so the swimming right of the boat was nice) and watched a HUGE sailboat dock. This boat had to be 150+ feet - it dwarfed the entire resort!

We went ashore around 5pm to shower (very worth the $3 fee). We charged some camera batteries at the office while we were ashore (since the boat is only 12v power) - no idea why we didn't think of that before hand and bring the ac/dc inverter. We had some tasty bushwackers in the bar before eating dinner (Chicago-priced lobsters, but we both agree they were worth every penny). We went to sleep early, but awoke to howling wind and, yes, another rain squall.

Tuesday, December 24th
We didn't sleep too well because the wind was howling. We finally got up when it got light out (around 6:30am) and debated for a while whether we should stick to the plan of heading for Marina Caye or bail and spend another day at the Bitter End. We decided to head out and then if it was too rough once we got out of the Sound, we'd retreat to Leverick Bay. Once out of the Sound, the seas we 5-10 feet and the wind was 20-30 knots, but we got the sails up and took off - in the right direction! It was clear on the horizon, and the dark ominous cloud seemed like it would miss us entirely. As we reached The Dogs (a series of 3 small uninhabited islands) we learned why the squall part of the boat briefing was important. Yikes - it came out of no where - over the peak of Virgin Gorda, right down the mountain, and straight across the water at us. We took down the sails and were still traveling at 9 knots! It passed within 5-10 minutes (note to self, Tilley hats make great rain shields) and we raised the sails just on the other side of The Dogs. We passed a Moorings boat under power, with all of the passengers wearing their life vests and sitting on the high side of the boat (then again, a lot of the Moorings boats drive around and never sail, so this was not too unusual).

There were plenty of moorings available when we arrived at Marina Caye around noon (3 hours from when we left the Bitter End). We looked for one that was fairly sheltered, then decided to just grab one and possibly move later. There was a really strong current coming over the reef, and although we grabbed the mooring on the first try, I couldn't hold on to it (not to mention, Andy had the boat at 3/4 throttle and we weren't moving forward at all). We got it on the second try, and had fun watching everyone go through the same thing later in the day. The sun was out by now, so we dinghied ashore and sat in the shade under a palapa (thatched hut) on the beach. We hiked to the top of Marina Caye (fantastic views of the surrounding islands) and then relaxed on the boat all afternoon.

For dinner, we went to Donovan's Reef on Scrubb Island. They have a very nice whaler launch that picks you up right at your boat (which is a plus because the dinghy was on its last legs). This restaurant opened in 2000, so we hadn't been there before, and it was quite a pleasant surprise. We both had lobster and it was phenomenal - split in half and grilled or something. The unusual part is that (like the lobster at the Bitter End) the meat was somehow detached from the shell, so the shell was more like a serving platter rather than an obstacle. On the top part of the shell, they'd removed the gross lobster-body stuff and filled it with garlic mashed potatoes - YUM YUM. Oh, and good bushwackers too! Winston (the whaler driver) returned us to our boat, and we crashed early (and, of course, were awakened around midnight by the passing rain squall)

Christmas Day
After the rough day before, we decided to sleep in, lounge around Marine Caye, and let everyone else leave before us to avoid the traffic. We dinghied ashore, went snorkeling (Andy saw a huge group of rays, I saw tons of spiny urchins), and sat under a palapa. Around noon, we returned to the boat, dropped the mooring, and pulled up to the dock to fill up with gas, water, and ice.

To our surprise, we'd only used 27 gallons of water and 4 gallons of fuel ($18 total).

We motored over to Trellis Bay (just across the small channel) and picked up a mooring (first try, which makes 3 for 4 record), where we were greeted by a turtle who stayed with us for two days. He was an elusive little fellow, and didn't like his picture taken. We dinghied ashore hoping to find a store that was open, but only the internet cafe was open ($5/15 minutes on Macs). The Trellis Bay Cyber Cafe had like 5 cats that all looked identical (all white with a tiger striped gray tail). We posted to the Travel Journal, and then walked around a bit. The weather was still kind of iffy, so we took it easy all day and had dinner at Pusser's on Marina Caye (they have a ferry from Trellis Bay). As I mentioned previously, Pusser's has gone downhill - I mean, the food was edible, but it was cold and the service was...slow. The best part of the meal was the ferry back - since it was just the two of us, they sped us back in a very fast whaler instead of the big ferry boat. The weather system had passed and the channel was like glass illuminated by millions and millions of stars.

Thursday, December 26th
Today was our boondoggle day - and after two days of "iffy", the weather was fantastic. We went ashore around 8am, walked over to the airport, and boarded our flight to Anegada. This island is "off limits" to bareboats because it is about 10 miles north of Virgin Gorda and is surrounded by a huge reef. The island is only 28 feet high at the highest point, so it is barely visible above the horizon on the clearest of days. The flight there was very cool - just Andy, me, and our pilot Sebastian. The plane was a four-seated with only one propeller on the nose. The view of the islands from above gave us a completely different perspective - as we neared Anegada, we could see wrecks of boats that fell victim to the "hurricane reef".

Nineteen minutes later, we landed on Anegada, were met by a taxi, and were taken to Loblolly Bay. This crescent shaped bay had powder white sand and the only sign of life was around the Big Bamboo restaurant (which, of course, specializes in Anegada lobster). We sat on the beach, went snorkeling, and had an out-of-this-world lobster lunch (split down the middle and grilled, but sprinkled with seasoning and somehow infused with butter). We both ate so much that we fell asleep on the beach after lunch :) We watched them pull in the lobster traps, one that contained a pretty big octopus that had already helped himself to some of the lobsters.

In the afternoon, we took a tour of the island (which took exactly one hour) and decided that Loblolly Bay was the place to be. On the tour we saw iguanas, pigs, piglets, lots and lots of goats, cows, and flamingos (which we had to view from afar because they are endangered). Sebastian the pilot picked us up around 5 and flew us back to Tortola just as the sun was setting - cool to see the Aaranda sitting in Trellis Bay (and easy to spot being one of the few boats without a dinghy since ours was ashore). We had a quick boat shower before dinghing over to the Last Resort for dinner (saw a bright red starfish as we docked too!). The Last Resort had changed a bit since our last visit, but definitely for the better. Our food was good, and the music they played was straight off our MP3 player. We think there is still "a comedy show" but we left right after dinner to avoid it :)

Friday, December 27th
We left Trellis Bay super early - like around 7 headed for Jost Van Dyke. We lucked out and the wind was at our backs, so we were going 4-6 knots - in the right directions. This was a great sailing day - perfect conditions, bright blue sky, and we had the whole channel to ourselves.

We arrived at Little Harbor on Jost Van Dyke around 11am - the harbor was completely empty so we had our choice of moorings (which we got on the first try, making the record 4 for 5). We chose the closest to the shore, but a few away from the restaurants (in case they were noisy at night). The water was an amazing turquoise, so we went for a swim before heading ashore. We made dinner reservations at Harris' Place, and got a cab over to White Bay. We're convinced that Jost Van Dyke has more goats than humans, which I guess isn't that wild since there are under 200 people on the island. Point is, everywhere you turn there is a goat. The last time we were at the Sandcastle Hotel, the seas were rough and the whole bay was empty. This time, the weather was perfect and the place was packed - even a small luxury cruise ship (well, not packed like Waikiki, but crowded for Jost Van Dyke). We had lunch at the Soggy Dollar bar, and then walked down White Bay (past a bunch of people camping on the beach, which we thought was odd until we realized it was a campground). When we got to the end of the bay, we ignored the "guests only" sign and hiked up to the White Bay Villas to reach the main road (rather than walking all the way back to the Sandcastle). The hike back to Great Harbor was a beast - we kept stopping in the shade to catch our breath. When we got to Great Harbor, we actually stopped and went for a swim (because we were sweltering and the water was a perfect shade of blue).

Refreshed after the swim, we walked to the bakery (which is down the sidestreet next to the immigration office) to pick up some breakfast for the rest of our trip (had grown tired of PB&J). To our surprise, the bakery has internet access ($5/15 minutes on an IBM NetVista), so we posted to the Travel Journal before getting a cab back to Little Harbor. There were a few more boats there now, but the bay was still calm and relatively empty. This is when the dinghy died - the knob for the choke came off, as did the handle for the throttle Andy managed to get it started but it only went one speed (slowest of slow) and he had to steer
by holding the engine with both hands. When we got back to the boat, we called the charter company to report the death, but since we only had one more day, decided we could deal with paddling if we had to.

Dinner at Harris' was another yummy meal of lobster - this time more than we could finish!

Saturday, December 28th
We left super early again, headed for Peter Island. We were going 4-5 knots in the right direction until we hit the channel between Soper's Hole, Tortola and St. John (USVI). We had the time, so rather than motor, we tacked back and forth a bunch before getting to the middle of the Sir Francis Drake Channel. We arrived in Sprat Bay, Peter Island around noon, and 4 of the 6 moorings were available. Sprat Bay is very shallow - our depth when we picked up the mooring was a little over 7 feet (and our draft was 5-6 feet, we think) - point is there was little room for error so it was good we grabbed it on the first try (final record, 5 for 6).

We rowed ashore (ugh - works better to row like a canoe and we were about 60-70 strokes from shore) and were greeted by the resort manager, who drove us in a golf cart to the beach bar where we had a great, but pricey, lunch. Deadman's Beach is, in a word, gorgeous. This is postcard-type beauty. After lunch, we headed to the beach to find a palapa, but then decided to walk on the beach a bit. We walked to the end of Deadman's Beach, and around the point (we think this is still Deadman's Bay though), where there were about 10-15 boats anchored (didn't want to cough up the $35 mooring fee). In an exploring mood, we continued walking (past the - gasp - heliport) to another beach that was absolutely deserted (no people, no boats, nothing except palm treed and chaise lounges). This is where we spent the afternoon - Reef Beach.

Around 3, we walked back, taking a side trip to hike up the hill for a great panoramic view of the bays. We stopped at the beach bar to order take out dinner (the resort has a dress code after 6pm - long, creased pants for men and (my favorite) "smart elegant resort wear" for ladies, which was unfortunate since I only brought stupid, unsophisticated, motor-lodge gear :) But the take-out was a great idea - we ordered a shrimp pizza and chicken caesar salad to be picked up after 5pm (we later found out the beach bar is open for dinner, but didn't want to have to paddle back to the boat more than once so take-out was the way to go).

We decided to explore a bit and checked out the lobby and pool (again, jaws-to-the-floor beautiful) and learned the hotel offers free internet access (so we have concluded that the $15 extra these moorings cost are well worth it when you factor in the free internet and shore showers). We had bushwackers in the lobby and decided that this was the nicest place either of us have ever been (and of course, the bushwackers were perfect and served in large glasses). As we ate our take out on the boat as the sun set, we decided we'd stay here two nights next time (and eat in the dining room!).

Sunday, December 29th
We dropped the mooring around 8am, after we packed up most of our things below deck. Luckily, the winds were with us and we had a great sail back to Road Town (5 knots in the right direction). We called Conch as we entered the harbor and they sent someone out to greet us. After fueling the boat (2 gallons), and hosing our stinky salty bodies off, we got in the cab from hell (this guy was such a bad driver that he was driving on the right side of the road to pass other vehicles!). We got to the airport at 1 and checked in for our American Eagle flight to San Juan. We landed in San Juan around 3, and had just over an hour to make our connection. This cut it pretty tight, since we had to go through US Immigration, reclaim our bags, go through US customs, recheck our bags, and scramble to our connecting flight. We made it (and were thankfully upgraded - YAY), but next time we'll take a slightly earlier flight to avoid the hassle.